Blue series studio grade ver 3.1 UPOFC pre-jacketed multicore

Van Damme Blue series has long been established as the analogue pre-jacketed cable of choice for the professional user. As with all Van Damme cables continuous re-evaluation, research and development has lead to further improvements to this already tried and tested range of cables.

Materials
Van Damme now use a higher purity oxygen free copper for the conductors - Ultra Pure Oxygen Free Copper. The use of this material further improves the ‘solderability’ and conductivity of the conductor resulting in faithful and transparent signal reproduction. Polypropylene (PP) is used for the conductor insulation. This material has a higher temperature rating than most polyethylene insulation giving excellent resistance to ‘shrink back’ during soldering. Its inherent hardness makes it ideal for the thin wall insulation used by Van Damme in their analogue audio multicores. This thin wall insulation ensures that the overall diameter of these cables is kept to a minimum without compromising electrical performance. Electrically it is very similar to polyethylene with a low dielectric constant (2.25 for PP solid types) and high stability across the lower frequency ranges associated with analogue audio signals.

Pairs are twisted together with a tinned UPOFC drain wire and shielded with an aluminium/polyester foil screen. The 150% coverage method employed ensures that the pair is fully screened and that the drain wire remains in close contact with the conductive aluminium foil allowing interference to be effectively taken to ground.

Individual pairs and the multicore outer jacket are oversheathed in an extruded soft abrasion resistant PVC composite jacket. The special PVC compound used by Van Damme offers the ideal compromise between flexibility and toughness- both essential qualities particularly in fixed installations where cables can be subject to rough handling. Overall jackets are high pressure extruded for the 2 and 4 pair variants, with the remainder of the range being cabled with flexible textile fillers and silicon talcum within a low pressure extruded jacket. The use of fillers and talc allows the individual conductors to move slightly within the multicore cable, counteracting the stresses imposed by flexing and coiling.

Each individual pre-jacketed pair is clearly numbered along its length and is colour coded to the IEC standard. From experience, this colour coding greatly reduces the time taken to identify a pair’s number, and in some situations, high pin count multipins for example, it is invaluable as the printed number may be obscured by other pairs or even the overall jacket.

Individual conductors are made up of 28 x 0.10mm strands of UPOFC (19 x 0.12mm for the drain wire) to give a conductor size of 24AWG, optimised for use with EDAC, DL and other crimp connections. With a correctly calibrated crimp tool, a perfect cold weld can be achieved between the conductor and the pin giving long term reliability and of course the excellent sonic performance expected from Van Damme Cable.

Van Damme blue series studio grade multicore runs from 2 to 48 channels in logical increments for most pro audio applications. Careful attention has been paid to the overall diameter of each cable within the range, given its potential application. For example the 2 pair has been specifically designed to fit into Neutrik XLR and jack connectors, whilst the 24 pair has been sized to work with EDAC 90 way and DL2-96P in line multipins.